The constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage has the support of 55 percent of Florida voters, which is not enough to get approved in the state.

Meanwhile, more than half of Florida's voters are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the way things are going in the state, yet Gov. Charlie Crist continues to receive high performance marks.

The latest Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University poll indicates that support is slipping for Amendment 2. Quinnipiac listed support for the amendment at 58 percent on June 3.

Amendments must receive 60 percent of the vote to be approved.

"The 55 percent level of support for the same-sex marriage ban is a bit surprising given that similar amendments have passed in a dozen states," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, stated in a release. "But backers have eight weeks to close that five-point gap by changing some minds and winning over undecided voters."

Florida already has a law against gay marriage, but petition organizers say it should be put into the state constitution to protect against lawsuits or future whims of the Legislature.

Opponents of the amendment include the ALCU, Florida Red and Blue, a statewide organization formed specifically to opposed the amendment, and Fairness for all Families, a coalition of more than 200 civil rights, senior, labor, faith and student groups.

According to Quinnipiac, Republicans support the amendment 76 to 21 percent, while Democrats oppose it 51 to 45 percent. Independent voters also oppose it 51 to 44 percent.

Men support the measure 55 to 41 percent while women back it 54 to 42 percent. White evangelical Christians support it 78 to 20 percent.

Crist's approval rating stands at 61 percent, including 50 percent from Democrats and 57 percent from independent voters, while the state Legislature got a 40 percent approval rating.

"In this very polarized electorate, it is very unusual for a public figure to have such popularity across party lines as does Gov. Charlie Crist," Brown stated. "Given that 83 percent of voters say Crist did a good job dealing with Hurricane Fay, it would be tempting to credit his popularity to that, but in reality his numbers have been higher than Jeb Bush ever had since he took office."

The poll found that 46 percent of voters are somewhat or very satisfied with the direction of the state, which is an improvement in ratings from Quinnipiac's June and April surveys.

The polling was conducted Sept. 2-4, before and after the state Supreme Court removed three amendments from the ballot. The amendment that would have asked voters to swap property taxes for schools with an increase in sales tax had 51 percent support, with 39 percent opposed, while the amendment that would have asked voters to make it easier for the state to provide public funds for vouchers to private or religious schools was opposed by 57 percent.

In the poll, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,427 Florida voters with a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points. On the school financing questions, 1,014 voters were surveyed, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.